Pie and coke

I know this is a new blog and I will mention ‘Pie and Coke’ a lot in my writing, so I thought I’d do a post about what it means to me and why I do it.

Firstly a ‘pie and Coke’ is not always a pie or coke, really it’s anything they want to eat and drink, well within reason of course. I don’t get Lobster. Haha. I normally say “I’m going for a pie and coke and I don’t want to eat alone. Would they like to join me, cause I’m paying”. Then I ask what they would like?

Now the first thing I try and do is make a joke or two and try to become friends quickly, if anything show that I’m a mate that only wants to share a meal and have someone to chat too. If anything their doing me a favour by joining me.

Not all come with me to get the food because they have a swag or bags of things, which is all they own so they don’t want to leave or lose them. I always ask what they want and go and get the food, then come back with it.

The idea of doing the ‘pie and coke’ is to well give someone in need something to eat which that in itself is good enough but for me I’m always looking for ones that want to get on their feet. So I sit with them and start the talking (sometimes with a joke or two) but then when they are more comfortable I sit back and mostly listen. I try to steer the chat to why or what happened for them to become homeless.

Now some are just happy being homeless and/or being homeless has become a way of life and even a lifestyle. But the way I see it is everyone is always at different stages in life and I just sit and listen. But then there’s the time that I get someone who is saying things like “I’ve had enough and it’s time to get on my feet” or something like that. That’s when I help to move heaven and earth to help them, but only as much and as fast as they want to be helped. I will say I have helped many people and it’s such a great feeling that it can bring a tear of joy later when I’m on my own.

Now don’t get me wrong I have done this so many times I couldn’t count, there’s been plenty of times I don’t even get there name and the chat is about anything but them. I understand for a lot of them it’s a trust thing and that’s all good because I’m happy to show that I’m a friend. You see for some it’s mental health or there’s so many people out there that take advantage of them that trust is very hard.

For me there’s no limit to how many ‘pies and cokes’ I do for someone. If I have plenty of time and money when I see someone I think needs a meal then I’ll offer. Normally I set out to do my ‘pies and coke’ in the afternoon after work.

I would like to say that when I offer to buy my ‘pie and coke’ they jump in the air with joy and everything’s good, no it’s not the case. I can be polite and offer but even I have had people swear and yell just because I was coming towards them. I know it’s not because it’s me, but anyone would get the same responds. The person is having a bad day or maybe been hurt by others. As I said before there’s a lot of people out there that try/do take advantage of homeless.

I get a lot of people saying how proud they were of me for getting on my feet after being homeless for about 1 ½ years and overcoming so many things in life. I say to people that while I was homeless, people would stop and buy me food and things like that. Now the food was very much needed, but the thing I got from it the most was the ones that showed me enough respect as a person to want to talk to me. I will never stop doing my ‘pie and coke’ for that very reason. While I was homeless there were times I felt ready to get on my feet and I wish I’d meet someone like me now to help.

I will finish by saying “People are always saying that they had wished they had helped me when I was homeless, because of the great work I do for the homeless and how much of a inspiration I am” I say “There’s thousands of people that are homeless and I believe everyone has potential, but people can’t see it because there down on their luck at the moment”

I’d like to thank you all for reading our blog and I hope you all have a great day. Please share with others using the blue T and F buttons below this posting.

Grant the Polite Guy

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